Where to Lay Your Head......

I recently spoke at a travel event in Australia attended mostly by travel agents, airlines and travel insurance companies. 

During my presentation, I spoke about the importance and education of duty of care for travellers, and provided a case study of a traveller ill-informed of the risks of travel that ended up costing her a lot of money. 

The hot topic of accommodation came up, with AirBnB now partnering with Qantas and opening up a "business" channel. This enraged the travel agents, but excited the travellers and airlines. 

Naturally, the question turned to me. Not only do I deal with all kinds of emergencies from travellers in trouble, I'm an avid traveller myself (read - I'm a travel addict) and I don't necessarily stick to the "safe" zones. I write travel safety guides, so naturally my audience expected me to have a solid opinion. 

So, what's safer for a solo female traveller - a hotel room or AirBnb?

Thats such a tricky question. Obviously my travel agent friends want to say that Hotels are safer - with 24hr concierge etc. But not all hotels are like that and not all travellers have a budget for a hotel with 24/7 security and concierge. 

Hotels can vary depending on location and budget. I've stayed in some fancy pants places that I didn't want to leave, but I've also stayed in some places where I've not been able to sleep for fear of being murdered in the middle of the night. 

I've also use AirBnB and have had the same level of difference. When travelling with my family I have no issue at all staying in an AirBnB - we usually take the entire apartment/house and have an awesome time. 

In fact, the first AirBnB I booked was for a wedding in Belgrade. I chose an apartment with a guest rating of 100%, and let the owners know who was travelling and why we were there. Amazingly, the owner messaged me and noted I was going to a wedding, so she offered to make a hair and nail appointment for me. I probably wouldn't get that level of customer service from the fanciest of hotels. 

Over a 4 week period travelling through eastern Europe, we stayed in eleven different places through AirBnb. Only one of the eleven was "dodgy" and we quickly moved on. Overall, for three of us it only cost AUD1500 for a month of accommodation in what we considered comfortable, stylish and fun. If we'd slept in hotel rooms, this would have doubled our budget easily. 

But travelling solo and staying in an AirBnb is a little different.

I decided to throw myself on the sword and test it out in Germany with a cute little one bedroom apartment all to myself. I was met by a colleague of the owner who showed me around the place and left me with the keys. I didn't feel quite as easy knowing that someone else knew that I was travelling alone and that there may or may not be a spare set of keys. 

But here's the thing. To be an AirBnB host, you have to have gone through specific police checks. You also consider hosting a form of investment or income earner - so why would you do anything that would ultimately lead to a jail sentence and loss of income? 

I was left with a wine cellar, should I choose to partake. I was also left with some basic food essentials in case I wanted to cook, as well as a case of sparkling mineral water because..I dont know why. 

There is a delicious bakery across the road from me, and a cafe down the road who knows my coffee order after only two visits. I also have a washing machine, and as mundane as this sounds - when you're travelling, your clothes don't clean themselves. 

So for now, I'm enjoying sharing my money with people just like me, and getting to "live like a local" in different cities around the world. 

This post is NOT sponsored by AirBnB